Deafening Silence

2013 Halloween Roundup

 Happy Hallowe'en 2013!  If the Obamacare rollout wasn't scary enough for you, try cringing at some of these links.

First, a trailer for the one horror movie I might actually go see:

  Next, The Week offers 4 possible scientific explanations for ghosts:

A recent HuffPost/YouGov poll showed that a startling 45 percent of all Americans consider ghosts to be real.

Perhaps they're right! Perhaps there's something more to specters than lazy Halloween costumes and Paranormal Activity. There are, however, at least a few perfectly logical explanations behind people's supposed run-ins with poltergeists.

One of their explanations is the phenomenon known as "infrasound." For more on infrasound, you can read this article:

• Infrasound is usually inaudible, but it does affect the human body. It can cause nausea, anxiety and chills. Some researchers think infrasound might affect vision by causing vibrations of the eyeball.
• Researchers have theorized that a portion of the population is hypersensitive to infrasound.
• Infrasound can be generated naturally by avalanches, earthquakes and severe weather. It can also result from man-made sources such as diesel engines and sonic booms.

(Image Credit: keseeker/Morguefile)

And now, applying yet more science to superstition- Dracula, Angel and Edward had better shop for sunlgasses because Transylvania is about to get a massive solar power upgrade!

Transylvania County, North Carolina, that is:

...Transylvania County has great potential for solar development, the president of a renewable energy company told a group of environmentalists Thursday....

"There's no reason we couldn't build 100 megawatts (of solar energy production) in this community,” said Banker...

...buildings, such as the Transylvania County Public Library and Blue Ridge Community College's local campus, have enough roof space to support as much as half a megawatt apiece, he said. Banker said that's enough to power those places and then some.

And from The Atlantic, a story about a North Dakota woman applying nutritional science to trick-or-treating:

An outspoken woman in North Dakota told a local news station that she will be distributing the following note to overweight trick-or-treaters tomorrow evening.

(Image Credit: ValleyNewsLive/The Atlantic)

(Image credit: cohdra/morguefile)

WXII offers an assist to the North Dakota do-gooder with a list of the Best and Worst Halloween Candy for your teeth, and 10 Alternatives to Halloween Candy.

If you've had enough of scientific fact and have an appetite for fiction, check out The Week's offering of 9 Contemporary Horror Stories, featuring works by Harlan Ellison and Joyce Carol Oates.

(Image Credit: clarita/morguefile)

And what holiday would be complete without a fun new recipe from Sydney at The Crepes of Wrath?

 I had to do something with the two bags of Reeses peanut butter cups that I bought, as those are an even bigger weakness of both Kramer and myself and we would have slowly, but surely, devoured both bags without even realizing it. I figured I would do something simple, so a peanut butter blondie was born with plenty of roughly chopped Reeses folded into the batter -

(Image Credit: The Crepes of Wrath)

The recipe is here.

Happy Hallowe'en, everybody! Have fun ghost-hunting and trick-or-treating. We'll leave the light on for ya':

(Image Credit: lynette/Morguefile)

Because I Missed Halloween...

...I'm going to post this, one of my all-time favorite commercials.  It was aired briefly, then banned on the grounds that it was too frightening for children.  Riiiighhttt.  Like those children aren't already familiar with films like Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream.

Personally, I like this ad because it's creative, promotes fitness and is feminist in a healthy, positive way. 

Or maybe I just like it because I like to run.

 

Sorry, But This Is Just Creepy

A presidential proclamation now demands that we display our patriotic fervor on the newly-created "Loyalty Day":

On Loyalty Day, we rededicate ourselves to the common good, to the cornerstones of liberty, equality, and justice, and to the unending pursuit of a more perfect Union.

In order to recognize the American spirit of loyalty and the sacrifices that so many have made for our Nation, the Congress, by Public Law 85-529 as amended, has designated May 1 of each year as "Loyalty Day." On this day, let us reaffirm our allegiance to the United States of America, our Constitution, and our founding values.

 

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 1, 2012, as Loyalty Day. This Loyalty Day, I call upon all the people of the United States to join in support of this national observance, whether by displaying the flag of the United States or pledging allegiance to the Republic for which it stands.

Notice that date: May 1. A date historically connected to (depending on your perspective) communism, worker's rights, or socialism. Or, more recently, May 1 of 2012 (yesterday, if you've been asleep) was designated a day of special action by the increasingly choatic and anarchic Occupy Wall Street movement.

And now, suddenly, May 1 is declared Loyalty Day by presidential proclamation? A proclamation that strongly urges the display of flags and the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance?

Shades of Huac. Or of a shaky president trying desperately to throw off nasty "Marxist/Alinsky" rumors that dogged him in the last campaign, as a new round of elections begins.

We already have plenty of occasions to display the flag and celebrate our great nation. Fourth of July, for example (a favorite holiday of mine). For special recognition of those who served and gave the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom, we have Memorial Day. And those are just the first two that come to mind. What we don't have is a president and a congress devoted to leading our nation into a brighter future that vindicates it's past struggles.

Don't issue proclamations demanding that I prove my loyalty, Mr. President. Get busy and do your job so I can still have a country to remain loyal to.

UPDATE:

There is a claim now making the rounds that Loyalty Day has been in place since Eisenhower and that every president proclaims it, to wit:

George W. Bush, proclamation 8137 (April 30, 2007)
Bill Clinton, proclamation 6556 (May 1, 1993)
George H. W. Bush, proclamation 5962 (April 28, 1989)
Ronald Reagan, proclamation 4836 (April 14, 1981)
Jimmy Carter, proclamation 4493 (March 23, 1977)
Gerald Ford, proclamation 4354 (March 4, 1975)
John F. Kennedy, proclamation 3528 (April 18, 1963)

I still don't like it.  I didn't like it when Bush proclaimed it.  Or Clinton.  Or Reagan.  It's just as unnecessary and paranoid now as it was when it was first conceived at the height of the Cold War/Red Scare.

It's still a cheap opportunity for the current occupant of the Oval Office to take a swat at ugly rumors.

And I'm still offended.

Happy Valentine's Day!

In honor of the day, here are some great film declarations of love.

  If you are able to view a copy of the 1990 Cyrano de Bergerac, directed by Jean-Paul Rappeneau and starring Gerard Depardieu as Cyrano, please do yourself a favor and watch it.  It is by far the best interpretation of the famous story ever produced.  In all aspects- direction, casting, costuming, music, sound design, set design- it is utterly superior to all previous productions.  It really is a sumptious romantic banquet. 

Unfortunately, a balconey scene with English subtitles is not currently available, so you'll have to content yourself with this trailer:

  

While we're still in classical mode, here is another great confession of love: the wooing scene from Henry V.

(Also a comforting choice if you're one of those guys who has trouble finding the right words)

 

Here's a more light-hearted confession from the sadly-overlooked, Capra-esque film While You Were Sleeping.

(This clip also reminds us that there are many kinds of love, all of them important[skip to about 6:45 in]):

 

And speaking of Capra, here's a true classic moment from It's a Wonderful Life.

(Legend has it that there were supposed to be several more pages of dialogue, but the actors got so swept up in "the moment" that the extra lines went unspoken.  Capra decided he liked it better this way, and I think we all agree!)

 

And lastly, because true love doesn't grow stale- it just grows old, if we're very,very lucky- a clip from On Golden Pond:

Happy Valentine's Day to all kinds of lovers and all types of loving, young and old!  Give your valentine a kiss today.

 

Merry Christmas to All

It's been a discouraging year for many Americans.  But cheer up, chin up; a new year full of new chances is on the way.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Make the Yule-tide gay,
From now on,
our troubles will be miles away....

  Sing it, Judy!

 

And a big MERRY CHRISTMAS as well to our returning troops:

  Christmas Eve will find them

Where the love-light gleams

They'll be home for Christmas

And not just in their dreams......

Merry Christmas and warm wishes to all Deafening Silence readers, religious or not.  I hope everyone will have an opportunity to hug a loved one, raise a glass to treasured friends or simply take a deep breath and get ready for the New Year ahead.

Hallelujah! Happy Holidays!

I just saw this on FreeOurFreeMarkets.org.  Now this is my kind of flash mob:

 

I love the way everyone in the food court remains captivated for the entire piece (and even remembered to stand up!).  When I was in high school our chorus learned the Hallelujah Chorus and sang it every year at various tree-lightings and local ceremonies around town.  I can still sing large sections of the 2nd Alto part off by heart 30 years later.

Many communities sponsor volunteer choruses that sing the Hallelujah Chorus during the holiday season.  If you can carry a tune you and your community offers such a chorus, you should sign up.

Because the Hallelujah Chorus rocks, dude.  Trust me.

Hallowe'en Roundup, 2011

Given how scary real life has become, Hallowe'en seems a little unnecessary this year.  But, good years and bad, the calendar's pages continue to turn, so here goes:

(Image Credit: BA Daily)

 To start with, Bon Appetit Daily is running a post on Tru Blood, the imaginary blood substitute offered to metrosexual hillbilly vampires on HBO.  Apparently, someone has actually created and bottled a beverage by that name, and BA Daily gives it a review:

One bottle has a normal amount of sugar for soda, somewhere around 34 grams, but for some reason they decided to pile in a bunch of sucralose on top, too (the stuff of Splenda), along with caffeine, taurine, and some other energy drink junk that'll probably give you a monster headache. The flavor is called "Blood Orange," which, cute, but it actually tastes a little more like orange soda/Fresca suicide, or as our brave web producer/taster Erik Peterson described it, "Orangina plus a lot of Flintstones vitamins."

Vampires on energy drinks.  Heaven help us all.

This Tru Blood marketing campaign strikes me as a symbol of all that's gone wrong with Hallowe'en.  Like Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day, Hallowe'en used to be a 'micro-holiday'- a quick break in the routine without the demands of, say Christmas.  Now, according to WBUR's Here and Now (among other sources) it's big business:

The people who crunch the numbers on holiday spending say Halloween is an increasingly important day for retailers. The National Retail Federation says shoppers will spend $6.9 billion this year on Halloween confections, costumes, and doodads– up 18% over last year.

Need a rubber rat for the front lawn? It costs $22 — but it comes with blood on its teeth. Retailers are also offering Barbie pumpkin-carving kits, “boo-rific” Oreos, and a range of pet costumes.

People in my neighborhood starting decorating their houses with fake cobwebs and ghosts on October 1st this year.  Granted, my neighborhood is full of old-fashioned houses shrouded in big trees, so the decorations create quite the atmosphere.  But geez, I remember when putting up skeletons the Monday before Halloween was considered "overdoing it."

Not that I have anything against fun.  But some people have even taken to dressing up their pets, according to APP.com:

For fussy dogs (and cats), try a starter costume consisting mostly of accessories, advised Reyna Jew, who buys dog and cat apparel, shampoo, travel products and carriers for PetSmart.

Try angel, fairy or bat wings, a pirate or witch hat. If that’s still too much, there are bows that clip in the pet’s hair, necklaces and decorative collars or bandannas made of Halloween-themed fabric.

Target offers 29 costume styles for dogs, including five rider styles (a stuffed character rides on the back of the pet) designed for larger dogs and 10 partial costumes for the pet that won’t tolerate a full costume, said Kristy Welker of Target Communications in Minneapolis.

(Image Credit: Halloween24.com)

Well, ok- that one's kinda cute.

But check out this one:

(Image Credit: http://us2.picscdn.com/keyword/funny%20pet%20costumes/)

Oh, Noes!  Politically incorrect!

And very uncomfortable for poor Kitty, too.

{ Speaking of cats: please remember that Halloween can be a very dangerous holiday for cats- particularly black ones. The Humane Society even has a policy of not allowing adoptions of black cats around Halloween. as PetMD reminds us:

While Halloween may be a fun and exciting time for your kids, your cat may find it more stressful than fun. A steady stream of strangers ringing the doorbell, all wearing strange costumes and shouting "Trick or Treat," may be enough to send even the most courageous cat over the edge.

This article at PetMD lists important safety tips for your beloved kitty friend at Halloween.  They can apply to dogs as well.  It's worth looking over if you have a pet.}

(Image Credit: cohdra/MorgueFile)

Keep Kitty indoors this Halloween.  And Fido, too.  Besides, they can help scare the monsters away:

But maybe that's part of the problem of Halloween today- monsters aren't allowed to be scary anymore.  These days they're mostly presented as misunderstood minorities.  Starting with Buffy the Vampire Slayer (even earlier if you count 1987's Beauty and the Beast), vampires and werewolves turned into boyfriends.  These days vampires would rather be wed than (un)dead.

It seems like zombies are the only monsters left that still behave- well, monstrously.

(Image Credit: 96xrocks.com/Inhabitat.com)

Does this picture mean that The Marketers That Be are now working on a vegetarian zombie?  Maybe next Halloween someone will be marketing a product called Tru Brainz.  It will probably won't be a beverage, though.  More like a chewy snack.

Let's hope it's not finger food.

Joining the Team

 
(Image Credit: xandert at Morgufile)

Our town marked the Fourth of July this year by holding a naturalization ceremony in the main square of the historical district.

The square is over two hundred years old. It's a large greenspace shaded by trees and ringed by a white wooden fence.  When we arrived it was already crowded.  Aspiring citizens, their families and local media clustered around a raised platform where a 5-piece brass band played John Phillips Sousa and patriotic tunes.  The citizens-to-be were all dressed in their Sunday best: high heels and lace for the ladies, suits and ties for the men.  A little boy slipped his mother's grasp to dash around in a crisp white shirt and what must have been the first necktie he had ever worn. 

Observers leaned on the fence or sat in the grass nearby, forming an outer ring around the ceremony.  They were dressed in every possible combination of red, white, blue and denim- our national fabric.  Little girls wore red, white and blue ribbons on their pigtails.  Cameras hung around necks and as the ceremony began cell phones were raised in the air, craning for the best position.

110 people from 46 countries became American citizens this day.  They arrived here from Eritrea, Russia, Cambodia, China, Ukraine, Niger and Malaysia, to name just a few places.

(I didn't realize our town had a Malaysian community, but they turned out in force and they were rowdy.  They had grouped themselves around a single tree in the back, and cheered with such gusto that even the dignitaries conducting the ceremony chuckled.)

I had never seen a naturalization ceremony before.  The ritual may have been intended to single out new citizens, but in practice it was a group effort.  We all sang the national anthem together, hats off and hands over hearts.  We all cheered the Color Guard as they placed the flags onstage.  And at the end of the ceremony we all recited the Pledge of Allegiance in a raucous unison that outdid even the Malaysians.

After the aspiring citizens recited the Oath of Allegiance together, each was asked to walk across the platform individually and accept their certificate of naturalization.  It was already over 90 degrees and there were 110 new citizens, but to my surprise, the crowd stayed put until the end.

It was worth the wait.  One of the first citizens to cross the little stage was a young lady from Niger, her hair wrapped in a black and white scarf.  She was so excited to receive her certificate that she bowed to the audience, held the paper overhead, and began jumping up and down.  Then her friends and family started cheering, and she literally danced off the stage. 

A tall young man whose name sounded Eastern European to me accepted his certificate and immediately fell to his knees, like Bjorn Borg winning Wimbledon.  One woman of Cambodian ancestry actually curtsied to the dignitaries.

Among the final names called was an elderly woman swathed head-to-toe in a pristine white sari.  She was so frail that she had to be helped up the steps, but as she made her way slowly across the stage on the arm of a younger companion and stretched out her had to grasp the certificate, I wondered: was this a lifelong dream?

As each new citizen crossed the stage, the crowd gave them a fresh burst of cheers and applause.  Some of these brand-new Americans will flourish in their new lives; some will struggle and some will fail.  But until I saw this ceremony, I did not appreciate the ferocious hope that drives them all here.

The U.S. recruits a pretty deep bench.

Welcome to the team, folks.

 

Hey!!!!!!!!!!

Today is 1/1/11.

I think that's kinda neat.

In Honor of the Awful Weather This Week...

...and just because it made me smile:

The Waltz of the Snowflakes as Performed by the Chicago Gay Men's Chorus.

And here's some folks digging out from the real thing:

Hope you can stay warm and happy and safe this week!